The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) last month awarded $3.75 million to HPRC for another 5-year cycle of research on healthy aging. “I applaud the CDC for their continued investment in the Health Promotion Research Center,” stated Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash. “This critical funding will help the HPRC continue their invaluable research to promote the health of older adults in Washington state and across the country.”

HPRC Director Dr. Jeff Harris will lead a new core research project during this funding cycle. “Older adults are much more likely to participate in a community-based program like Enhance®Fitness if it is recommended by their physician or another health care provider,” said Harris. “So, we will be conducting research with physical therapists and primary care providers to learn about effective means of increasing recommendations to attend a program like EnhanceFitness.”

CDC site visitors and HPRC staff visit an EnhanceFitness class at the Matt Griffin YMCA.

EnhanceFitness Program Shown to Reduce Costs and Improve Health Outcomes for Medicare Beneficiaries

In a recent report to Congress, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) described promising evidence suggesting that the EnhanceFitness Program had driven down total healthcare costs, decreased unplanned hospitalizations, and decreased mortality rates for participating Medicare beneficiaries.

EnhanceFitness was one of nine programs retrospectively
analyzed as part of an Affordable Care Act requirement under Section 4202(b),
which directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services to develop a plan for
promoting healthy lifestyles and chronic disease self-management for Medicare
beneficiaries. Findings related to EnhanceFitness included the association of
program participation with an estimated total medical cost savings of $945—specifically,
participants in an unplanned inpatient setting saw savings of $545 and those in
a skilled nursing facility setting saved $139. Read the report summary >>

Jeff
Harris, MD, MPH, MBA, director of the UW Health Promotion Research Center since
2007, and professor and vice-chair of Health Services, has an interesting
background that demonstrates his sincere dedication to public health. His
career has included community health care in Guatemala and Bangladesh, and
research work with the Washington State Department of Health, the United States Agency
for International Development (USAID), and the CDC prior to joining the UW School of
Public Health in 2001.

Raised
in Fort Worth, Texas, Jeff found inspiration in his father, who was a physician and
the first college graduate in his family. At three years old, Jeff appeared on
the “Bozo the Clown” TV show and announced he was going to be a pediatrician.
He entered college (UT Austin) at 16 years old, and by age 22 had finished
medical school at UT Southwestern. “I was very focused—for better or worse,”
laughs Jeff. During his internal medicine residency at Columbia University in New
York, Jeff met his wife, Dr. Judy Wasserheit—they married in 1981. More >>